All posts by Jesse Weissman

Strategy

Chart Your Voyage: How Pirates Lead Digital Transformations

One year ago we explored the question of when it was time to live the pirate life. Today, we are going to explore ways to chart your first pirate voyage. You’ve convinced your executive team that change, in this case a “digital transformation,” will bring tremendous value. What was once a pirate project has burst into the mainstream with companies projected to spend billions (trillions?) of dollars on transformative projects over the next few years.

So what is a pirate to do when the seas are awash with investment? When the corporate armada is suddenly on-board yet somehow rudderless and adrift? When you’ve been given a compass, spyglass, and every hope and prayer that you will navigate the fleet to Transformation Island unscathed and under-budget?

The exciting news is that your pirate instincts are exactly what is needed to navigate these unchartered waters. Digital transformations have new twists and turns depending on the organization. Fortunately, smart consultants follow the scent of any reusable idea (a.k.a. treasure) floating in the breeze and “Digital Transformation” is a pungent example. As a result, the resourceful pirate has many safe harbors of research freely available to help chart a path into unfamiliar waters.

Do The Reading

Pirates read…a lot. Without direct orders from the Royal Navy and propelled by burning curiosity, pirates continually need to chart new paths and learn new skills to navigate uncertainty. Here is a list of seven go-to articles to fuel your strategic thinking before drawing a dotted line to the oversized “X that marks-the-spot” for your digital transformation.

McKinsey & Co.

These articles provide the best introduction to different frameworks Data Strategists can use to frame complexity. Start with “Ten Red Flags..” and pay special attention to how data initiatives are organized by impact and feasibility. The venn diagram illustrating both the multitude and intersection of analytical roles is very versatile. I’ve used it as a wake-up call for overly ambitious executives, and as a way of highlighting gaps in an organization. Lastly, make note of the diagram illustrating the centralized vs. decentralized organizational structure. It’s especially helpful when paired with the articles from HBR listed next.

The Harvard Business Review

“What’s Your Data Strategy” begins with a true and sobering statement: “CDOs’ tenures are often difficult and short.” This article introduces two potential data strategies, offensive and defensive, based on the intended use of an organization’s data. While I find the article a bit too (delightfully) abstract to put into immediate practice, the framework is an invaluable tool to negotiate the responsibilities shared between the business and IT. The second article is an urgent reminder of the specific skills critical to data success, and a helpful guide to the crew you will need to recruit.

Harvard Data Science Review

The Harvard Data Science Review is a new publication that belongs in the bookmark list of any and every data professional (pirate). “How to Define and Execute Your Data and AI Strategy” integrates many of the principles outlined in the lists above from McKinsey and HBR, with the additional benefit of a practitioner’s detailed perspective. This is especially evident in the Operating Model section of the article which introduces an almost Agile view of the data and business functions in an organization.

Sketch a Map

To be fair, at some point you will start feeling seasick from reading about data strategy and digital transformation. And it’s at this point when the seasoned pirate recognizes that it’s time to take action and put pen to paper. Sketching a map includes balancing risk vs. reward, and building consensus. A clear map to treasure is not enough. The people you engage provide the wind that powers your sails and the rudder that keeps you on course.

Balancing risk vs. reward begins by marking treasure with a big letter “X” wherever you think it may be found. That’s easy and unfortunately many companies (and doomed pirates) stop there. Building consensus is about sharing the map of possible treasure sites, and inviting your colleagues and crew to weigh in on both the risks and the rewards. Worthy topics for our next article. Until then just remember: good pirates do the reading. Now get started!

The Wicked Viz

Tracking The Mutations of COVID Data Visualization

Over the past year, our response to COVID has been influenced by a series of data visualizations that have evolved and mutated faster than the virus itself. March and April of 2020 saw a brief explosion of efforts to both understand and explain the emerging pandemic.

In mid-March of 2020, Information Is Beautiful published a COVID Infographic that went beyond infection and mortality rates. In an easy-to-read format, the Infographic began to answer our most pressing questions. What’s my relative risk if I go grocery shopping or attend a neighbor’s BBQ? How safe is it to get a haircut?

By early April 2020 we lived in a state of data model mania. When will the virus go away? Where is the pandemic rampant? Should I be concerned? Can our powers of computing and mathematics shed any light on this unprecedented terror? The Financial Times published an attempt to predict the future, predictably reflecting little more than our state of panic and the active dialog between mathematicians, scientists and the public at-large.

The media was quickly flooded by parabolic curves and lines of all shapes and sizes. Leading publications, such as The New York Times, began to clean up the statistical and visual clutter. The real problem became evident immediately. We really had no idea what to expect in the near future. In this chart, a handful of predictive models from well known institutions are clearly labeled, and standard measures like a 7 day average begin to emerge. But as this example illustrates, beyond a sense that mortality would decline in a few months none of our leading institutions could really agree on what was going to happen next (or when).

In the Spring of 2020 the reality of COVID began to settle in and communities around the world began to enforce restrictions or outright lockdowns. Visualizations of COVID in the media shifted from predictive to descriptive. And in the examples below from The New York Times, tabular data of accepted measures (Daily average in the last 7 days) begin to use standards for comparison and sparklines. Cases are expressed per hundred (or thousand) members of a population. Color coding is used to create urgency, and express a relative safety by community. A similar technique can be seen in Warming Stripes, a very effective visualization of climate change.

Source: The New York Times
Source: The New York Times

Today, the COVID pandemic is an extension of our daily weather report. You can look up the severity in your local community over morning coffee. Forecasting has taken a back seat. Focus is now on the rise of vaccination. Information is Beautiful updates its Infographic with data such as vaccine rates by country and mask effectiveness. And the media have largely standardized visualizations of COVID in a line chart or histogram like the example below from the New York Times.

With multiple factors influencing vaccination rates, such as supply, vaccine hesitation, and distribution ability, we face a new round of complexity and uncertainty. When will I receive a vaccine? Why is there such an uneven distribution of vaccine? And in response Journalists are experimenting with new visualizations. In this example, no less than seven different data points illustrate the relative difficulty (or level of concern) in obtaining a COVID vaccine.

Source: The New York Times

A year ago, on my way home from my last visit to the gym, I stopped by our local CVS and noticed older customers wearing latex gloves while handling vitamin bottles. I shivered momentarily at the checkout touchpad and asked the clerk to take my card and approve my purchase. Some virus was in our midst…somewhere.

Today I drive to my supermarket, don a mask, and do a six-foot dance around the other customers hunting for arugula and bananas. I splash disinfectant on my hands like aftershave once the groceries are loaded in the back of my car. I can almost count the weeks until my vaccination.

COVID is still in our backyard. But we know where it lurks and how to stay healthy due in part to the effective visualization of reliable data, governed by the time-tested principles of sound Journalism.

The Wicked Viz

POC as a Proportion of US Police Shootings

Aside

Apparently there is some disagreement about whether People of Color (POC) suffer disproportionately from Police shootings in the US. At issue is whether to use the total number of deaths, or the more accurate deaths per million measure that reflects differences in population size. The following chart, and the accompanying explanation of how the data was collected, is one of the more clear, objective visualizations of the fact that POC suffer disproportionately:

Niall McCarthy. Police Shootings: Black Americans Disproportionately Affected [Infographic]